


things you said

by mahariels



Series: all your bridges are burning [9]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 06:46:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6460030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahariels/pseuds/mahariels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a series of dialogue-heavy drabbles set in the "all your bridges are burning" verse, at various points in the continuity (based on the "things you said" tumblr prompt).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. things you said at 1am

“Boss. Hey. Boss.”

“Wh–what is it? Camp under attack?”

“No, everything’s fine–”

“Then wh–?”

“You know, I never found out what happened to Femme-Ra? All of these years and comic book shops later?”

“I was _sleeping_ and I thought… Is this another comic book thing, Mac?”

“ _Is this a comic book thing_. Jesus Christ, Boss, did you do _anything_ for fun back in the day?”

“You know I feel about fun–I’m–it’s too fucking early for this. Or late.”

“It’s serious business, Boss. This was like, the great love story of my youth.”

“A love/hate relationship between two barbarian warriors was the great love story of your youth? That explains a lot.”

“Laugh it up, Boss, but I’m serious. In the last issue, Grognak had captured Femme-Ra during a raid on his fortress–”

“Mac, it’s _one in the morning_ …”

“–and he was trying to get her to tell him where Grelok’s secret lair was, and the issue ended on a cliffhanger–”

“ _Farshporn zol er oyf tsu shteyn_?”

“I dunno what that means, but in all of my years wandering the Wasteland, I have _never_  found issue number 94.”

“Mac, we need to _sleep_.”

“I know, but I just–”

“ _Sleep_.”

“It’s just something I think about sometimes, when I _can’t_ sleep, and–”

“Femme-Ra escapes and knocks Grognak out and he chases after her. He never finds out where Grelok’s lair is, but they share a passionate kiss under the moonlight, and he lets her go with a solemn vow that he’ll find her again.”

“ _You’ve read it_? What? _How_?”

“Nate was a fan.”

“Boss–this–you–it’s been _years_?”

“ _Go to sleep_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the yiddish translates to "why bother waking up alive?"


	2. things you said through your teeth

“Hold still.”

“I’m _holding_.”

“Okay, okay, hold on–”

“ _Shit_.”

“Sorry–sorry. Jesus, Boss, many times am I gonna have to do this?”

The Raiders were dead, Rosa and Mac were alive, and she had been shot. Again. Rosa looked down at her arm. It was bleeding, sluggishly. The bullet had, with unerring precision, lodged itself in the space between the segments of combat armor on her left arm. Luckily missing anything that’d cause unpleasant spurting. She’d been shot there before three times since she and Mac had been traveling together. 

“By my count, definitely more than four but probably less than fifteen.”

“ _Fifteen_? Where the h–where do you figure _fifteen_?” His voice was furious (he always was, when he felt like she was taking stupid risks, and she was at once annoyed with his presumption and appreciative of his concern) but his hands, holding the small pair of pliers he’d spent the last five minutes heating in the fire to sterilize them, were gentle.

“It seemed like a reasonable estimation,” she said, gritting her teeth as the hot metal dug into the pulped flesh of her arm. Shit like that always made her stomach flip, nauseous, but she would never actually let him _know_  that. 

“How the f– _how_ is that reasonable?”

“Based on the amount of times I’ve already been shot there. And the number of times we get shot at.” It was an effort to keep her voice level. She knew she sounded ridiculous. It wasn’t even that it _hurt–_ she’d survived a lot worse–but she hated the feeling of anything wriggling under her skin.

When he looked up at her, she _almost_  felt bad about teasing him. His blue eyes were dark and furious–not at her, or at least, not totally at her. “Is this with a reasonable degree of scientific certainty?” he demanded, startling a laugh out of her, because she sure as hell hadn’t been expecting him to listen to any of her stupid, outdated law jokes. Let alone contextualize them. But he was goddamn smart, Mac, and he paid attention to her like his life depended on it. 

Sometimes it did.

“Not in the least,” she said, a breath hissing out from her lips. “A judge would never admit that into evidence. My expert report would get ripped to shreds and then I’d have wasted all of that money…”

He ignored that. “Let’s try to keep it at f–at four. Okay?”

“I can’t promise anything,” Rosa said, because she couldn’t, and she hated to lie to him. Not now. Not after everything. And because they both had the worst luck in the Commonwealth, they were _already_  pushing five. Making promises she couldn’t keep wasn’t going to do anyone any favors.

“Well, cut it out. I’m a mercenary, not a doctor.”

He didn’t need to stitch it this time–arms didn’t bleed like faces, _baruch hashem_ , and he’d started making it a habit to carry extra bandages. That would be enough until the stimpak started to do its job.

“You keep saying that, but at this rate you’re gonna give Dr. Sun a run for his money.”

“I didn’t actually need to expand my skill set, Boss. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.” He might have been annoyed, but he worked quickly, efficiently, and she thanked God again that she wasn’t at a point in her life where she was digging bullet fragments out of her elbow herself.

She finally exhaled, feeling the comforting pressure (and, to be honest, the comforting pain) of the dressing and said, a strange lightness in her chest and muscles, “I know.”


End file.
